Junior traders get the best pay-for-time deal in banking — earning an average of £19.20 an hour

Reuters/Lucas Jackson LONDON — Junior M&A bankers work such long days that their hourly pay rate is almost the lowest in the industry, according to a survey by salary benchmarking site Emolument.com.

Junior traders earn the most per hour at £19.20, despite their lower salaries.

Their £60,000 average annual pay is less than the £70,000 earned by their colleagues in M&A, but they work an average of 15 fewer hours a week to make up for it.

Junior M&A analysts earn £17.90 an hour, which is only 80p more than the less glamorous world of back-office banking, according to the Emolument study.

The firm analysed more than 3,000 salaries from junior professionals with between one and four years' experience working in London finance.

Here is the chart:

Emolument

Alice Leguay, an Emolument.com co-founder, said: "Work-life balance has become a more prominent element of young finance professionals' careers over the last decades partly due to lower pay prospects across the financial sector making analysts and associates feel the intense hours may not be worth the rewards."

Despite the long hours, junior bankers still fair better than those starting out in other industries. Young recruiters put in as many hours as some banking professionals at 52 hours per week, for about half the money £10.40.